Comments on: Google….Disappointshttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php
Thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more.Mon, 02 Mar 2015 21:15:17 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0By: Bill Hazeltonhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8536
Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:40:30 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8536As advertisers continue to struggle with shrinking margins on their ad spends (particularly on Google’s “Content” network that sucks the ROI-life out of any ad spend with them), Google will HAVE to HAVE additional markets to maintain these growth rates. Because I’m not planning on spending more with them … particularly not when margins are shrinking so rapidly and the economy is hurting as it is, there stock price will probably be under pressure for the forseeable future.

I don’t know the stock market, I just know that we’re not getting anywhere near the ROI that we used to, even with obsessive optimization on our search campaigns.

And with respect to mobile advertising, why does everybody think that the prospect of buying mobile advertising will so dramatically increase advertisers ROI? … First of all, if the advertising will be driven by GPS or by little contextual ads in our text messages, how can that possibly work for advertisers on an ROI basis? Google’s “kick the tires” content network doesn’t produce adequate ROI for us now on a PC, how’s it going to work on a mobile phone?

And to that point, are we really that deluded to think that buying lattes and stamps and carry-out Chinese from our phones from little Google mobile text ads is going to improve our lives that much? Are we going to buy products and services in large numbers? Maybe, but I’m still not convinced… But more importantly with respect to this conversation, are we going to buy meaningful amounts of products and services from our phones via these little ads? How big will the search volume in mobile legitimately be?

The valuation and expectation is down to investors (bubble-like) expectation that Google can keep on growing and expanding into every new advertising opportunity, and Investors get that idea from all the initiatives by Google and it almost explicitly declaring that they want to be at the point of every transaction/advertising-opportunity.

It’s this naive belief that they’re like a GE that can keep morphing into new bigger markets, or wallmart and as they’ve done with youtube, and planning on Double-click, faced with a hurdle, they can just buy it (like MS used to do).

The great problem with that vision (/arrogance) is that the newer markets are operated by competitors that are established with better competence and already have google/apple on radar; and Nokia, TomTom, Microsoft, Sony, Cisco et al aren’t for sale, and aren’t going to give way to google the way other idiots did in the faith of “do no evil”.

As the greatest empires have learnt, you can’t battle on every front.

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak

]]>By: Jerehttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8534
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:09:38 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8534They were way over valued – probably still are – but this is a healthy correction – the last thing the US economy needs is another tech bubble.
]]>By: nmwhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8533
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:46:42 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8533“Someday, Johnny!”

LOL,

nmw

]]>By: nmwhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8532
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:45:46 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8532One simple way to get Google closer to trading at US$1000 is to simply buy shares of GOOG stock — according to the laws of supply & demand, the market price with every increase in demand.

Good luck!

]]>By: laurahttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8531
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:48:58 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8531Google’s fair weather friends are taking their quick profits and running the minute the market turns down. Google’s innate worth and inestimable value to every individual and business is unchanged, and, I believe, is still not fully realized. Let these sellers try to jump back in when Google starts to climb again…I’m just waiting for that special Google logo to mark its stock hitting $1,000.
]]>By: davehttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8530
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:23:38 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2008/01/googledisappoints.php#comment-8530“From 750 to 520 in a few months…”

Yeah, but 520 ain’t chicken scratch. Incidentally, there’s an absolutely hysterical take on the market’s response to GOOG today over at Digital Daily.

1. the apparent assumption that a growth in online advertising will mean a growth in Google advertising

2. the heavy emphasis on ICT (e.g. mobile/android/etc.); in fact, some people argue that other producers of Communications Technology software / hardware are excellent (i.e., that Google should simply open its mobile search applications to more platforms). On a very fundamental level, it is quite questionable why search should perform better/worse on a mobile device rather than on a laptop, pc (or whatever) — that almost sounds like push media